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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Access to Clean, Safe Drinking Water Threatened by Rapid Urbanization

Water for Humans continues to work successfully with local experts, university personnel, and government officials in the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico to bring clean, safe drinking water there. Partnering with Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca (UABJO), Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO), local Rotary International chapters, El Foro Oaxaqueño del Agua, Guadelupe Etla, Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla, State and Federal government officials, as well as the Department of Health--Water for Humans is building a constructed wetlandfor sewage treatment in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla. The goal is to eliminate the raw sewage currently flowing from the defunct wastewater treatment plant in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla downhill to Guadalupe Etla.

Water for Humans intends to continue its humanitarian initiatives like the one in Mexico in other under-developed and under-served countries in the world. Access to clean, safe drinking water is not a privilege for the select few who are fortunate enough to live in advanced countries. Water for Humans believes that being able to obtain fresh drinking water that is free of toxins is a right that all people must seize. And Water for Humans is committed to making that happen.

Addressing this formidable worldwide water crisis is a challenge that seems more daunting every day. We read in a recent article published in Urban Health Updates that the burgeoning population growth in many urban areas from Africa to Egypt to Bolivia are creating major hurdles to people in these countries from accessing safe drinking water.

Rapid urbanization is taking place throughout the world, and this is putting a tremendous strain on water supplies. Children are often the ones who suffer most in the form of contracting water-borne illnesses. The UN Environment Programme says some 884 million people have no access to clean drinking water, yet three times that number have no toilets or sanitary facilities of any kind.

Below read an excerpt of this poignant article that should awaken all of us to the magnitude of this black water crisis. These stories should summon all of us to do our part to help alleviate this pandemic that is taking lives every day, and many of those lives are children under the age of five.

Securing a safe water supply in urban areas is an increasing problem in 2011. The UN recognizes access to clean drinking water as a human right, but it remains out of reach for millions of people around the world.

Some 400 million people in Africa live in urban areas, according to United Nations statistics – but as of 2008, 55 million of them lacked access to clean drinking water.

A study by two UN agencies, released on Monday (March 21, 2011) to coincide with World Water Day on March 22, highlighted a troubling trend: As Africa’s cities grow more populous, an increasing number of residents there must do without clean water and sanitation facilities.

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Water for Humans is a nonprofit social venture that provides sustainable low cost, clean water solutions to the 800 million people without access to safe drinking water and the 2.6 billion people without water sanitation

Water for Humans works with local, social entrepreneurs around the world to provide local employment, clean water, and a general understanding of water as an asset.